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Question
Friday, October 15, 2010 9:39 AM | 1 vote
In the older versions of Access I have always been able to autocomplete a field by entering the first two numbers to give it a sequence, then using the cursor arrow to complete the rest of the rows. I cannot do this in Access 2010. Is it removed, or do I need to turn something on in the options. Tried doing help searches but nothing found
All replies (8)
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 9:13 PM âś…Answered
Hello Brendakl,
My apologies. I understand now that you're using the Autofill feature as described in the following KB article. Despite having worked with Access for quite a number of years, I can't say that I've ever used this feature or seen it used. Unfortunately, it appears that this feature has indeed been dropped as of Access 2007. This was reported by a customer previously and it was confirmed that the feature was intentionally dropped, as opposed to some sort of bug preventing it from working correctly.
271607 ACC2000: Tables Are Automatically Populated with Values As You Move Through Fields or Records
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;271607
Obviously this is not what you were hoping to hear. If you'd like to share how you were using this feature then there may be some ways that you can use other methods to simulate the Autofill functionality.
Best Regards,
Nathan Ost
Microsoft Online Community Support
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Monday, October 18, 2010 9:36 PM
Hello brandakl,
I'm not entirely sure what feature you're referring to here. It certainly is still the case that you can create an Autonumber field that will automatically increment for each new record entered in to the table. Your description of using the cursor arrows to complete the rest of the rows is where I get lost.
Please provide some additional details about the process you used in a previous Access version (including which version that was) and we will definately try and help you out.
Best Regards,
Nathan Ost
Microsoft Online Community Support
Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010 7:39 AM
In all the versions I have used since Access 97, I could create an ordinary text field in a table and when ready, as the information not often available when creating the table, I would enter the first two numbers to start and set the sequence and then just use the cursor arrow to complete as many rows as needed. It was not unusual for me to have two fields which needed to be completed this way in one table so autonumbering is no use. As I have been known to create entries in several thousand rows this way it is not realistic to enter them manually.
After spending years telling people to use Access when handling lots of data, I would be mortified to have to export this data into Excel, complete the fields then take it back into Access again.
If, say in Access 2003 you create a basic table with two text fields (or an autonumber and a text) and in the text field type any number, then in the next row type another number to create a sequence, then just cursor down and see what I mean.
This does not work in 2010.
Regards
Brendakl
Friday, October 7, 2011 11:07 AM
Hi Brendakl and Nathan from Microsoft,
I have exactly this problem. Each month I send out invoices and used this feature to put in my invoice numbers. as Brendakl said, I cleared our any previous numbers, typed in the first two invoice numbers I needed and then just used the down arrow to automatically put in all the rest of the invoice numbers required. This was an extremely useful feature. Now I have to type in each indiviual invoice number and when you are on a four digit number of more it's terribly easy to miss a number out, which messes up our accounts.
Why on earth did Microsoft remove this feature? There's no logic to removing it. Why should we lose functionality when we spend more money on updating our Microsoft software?
Microsoft: please send us a fix for this problem!
By the way, you may think because I referred to invoice numbers that I should be using Excel for this. Excel is not an alternative for us. Access is used as we have a database for our clients containing all sorts of useful, non-numeric information and is used for mail merges and for links between databases etc. It worked perfectly for us as it was and I wish I hadn't upgraded to Office 2007. Microsoft - next time you're "upgrading" your software, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!!!!!!!!
Wednesday, October 12, 2011 5:35 PM | 1 vote
This feature is crucial! I just upgraded to 10 and this feature was the most useful feature I used when numbering list in a production schedule. Bad move getting rid of this feature. =(
Thursday, April 26, 2012 4:38 PM
This feature is crucial! I just upgraded to 10 and this feature was the most useful feature I used when numbering list in a production schedule. Bad move getting rid of this feature. =(
I couldn't agee more! I produce catalogues and the ability to resort them in table view is crucial. I like 2010 but without this feature I'm stuck. Bring it back! Bring it Back!
Saturday, October 6, 2012 9:23 PM
Why was this feature not added back into Access 2010? I just moved from Access 2003 and used the sequential number entry frequently. I deal with seven digit ID numbers in groups of fifty or more at a time. This is not helpful. I guess I could go back to Access 2003? What would happen if I tried to use A2003 to open a A2010 database?
Sunday, November 11, 2012 6:50 AM
So instead of trying to fix a bug Microsoft Removes the feature?